My home setup presents a particular set of challenges. I live in a two-story duplex apartment (first floor and basement) in a large building. I have a mixed wireless network (Mac and PC), and there are eight to ten other wireless networks in my building, not to mention the signals from other tenants' cordless phones, baby monitors, and microwave ovens. I've even caught scraps of CB radio transmissions through my TV when cabs drive by.

I was looking for a device to stream the music I have stored on the iMac in my basement home office to the first-floor stereo. The ideal device should play my music files on the iMac and support Rhapsody streaming from my ThinkPad (and maybe even have an LCD and remote control). So I embarked on a weekend odyssey to test five music-streaming devices in two days at my home. I hope my experiences will save you some buying remorse.

The first device I tested was the D-Link MediaLounge DSM-120 ($179.99 direct, www.dlink.com). I must admit that after unpacking it, I had high hopes. It has a bright LCD, a cool form factor, a USB port, and a 100GB storage drive to play music directly from the device. Setup is tricky, and because you add it to your wireless network you must know the ins and outs of networking (such as whether your network is ad hoc or infrastructure, and the key index of your WEP password). You must also install a client app. When I finally got it set up, the DSM-120 worked for a while but kept dropping the connection, and streaming of protected WMA tracks was spotty.

Many of my Mac-centric friends have been raving about the Apple AirPort Express ($129 direct, www.apple.com), so I thought I'd give it a try. My first mistake was not reading the fine print. The installation software said I needed to update to OS X 10.4, in contradiction of Apple's Web site, which says it can run on 10.3 or later. After upgrading to 10.4, I reinstalled the AirPort utility and got it up and running. For what it is designed for, the AirPort Express works well. If you're in a Mac-only household or will use the AirPort Express as a travel router, this device is a bargain. You can even get multiple devices and play different tracks in each room. But because it has no LCD, doesn't support any music subscription services, and was less than ideal in a mixed environment, I concluded that it was not for me.

I'm glad I didn't set up the Sonos ZonePlayer 80 ($999 direct, www.sonos.com) before the others, because it would have spoiled me for them. Simply put, the ZP 80 is awesome. It requires no software installation, sets up in a snap, and includes a stylish remote. It will even display album art, and it supports Rhapsody. It met my every criterion save one: price. Unfortunately, I don't have $1,000 burning a hole in my pocket. But if you have the long green, Sonos is the way to go.

After an exhaustive two days of testing, I reached the final two devices in my roundup, the Roku SoundBridge M1000 ($199.99 list, www.rokulabs.com) and the Oregon Scientific Music Sphere ($199 list, www.oregonscientific.com). The SoundBridge is a sleek, cylindrical device with a remote and a crisp VFD screen, and the Music Sphere is a portable, high-design globe receiver with a built-in speaker, separate transmitter unit, and a neat round display. It uses the 2.4-GHz wireless spectrum to play back and control up to three different audio sources (MP3 player, stereo system, or TV audio) up to 100 feet away from the source.

With the SoundBridge you do not need to install a client app: It simply plugs into your stereo via the standard rear RCA connectors, like a CD player. The SoundBridge recognizes your music servers, such as Rhapsody or iTunes library, and it can play Internet radio stations. When I set it up, it worked amazingly well, recognizing all my music (Rhapsody, iTunes, and so on), right away. I was even able to integrate the Music Sphere using an available RCA port on my stereo. Basically, I could stream music from the iMac to the SoundBridge, which would then stream it to the Music Sphere in the bedroom. I used the supercool Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote with a color display ($249.99 direct, www.logitech.com) to control everything. If you want music all over the house, the SoundBridge and Music Sphere are the poor man's answer to Sonos. If you have wireless speakers in other rooms, get the SoundBridge.

Erik Rhey is a former senior editor of PC Magazine Digital Edition. He is currently a freelance writer and editor for Fortune, Money, AllYou, and PCMag.com. He also teaches online courses in creative writing and online journalism at the Gotham Writers Workshop and NYU.
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